OPEN LETTER TO POPE LEO XIEI. 9
This we propose, not as a cunning device of human ingenuity, but as a conforming of human regulations to the will of God.
God cannot contradict himself nor impose on his crea- tures laws that clash.
If it be God's command to men that they should not steal that is to say, that they should respect the right of property which each one has in the fruits of his labor ;
And if he be also the Father of all men, who in his common bounty has intended all to have equal opportu- nities for sharing ;
Then, in any possible stage of civilization, however elaborate, there must be some way in which the exclusive right to the products of industry may be reconciled with the equal right to land.
If the Almighty be consistent with himself, it cannot be, as say those socialists referred to by you, that in order to secure the equal participation of men in the opportunities of life and labor we must ignore the right of private property. Nor yet can it be, as you yourself in the Encyclical seem to argue, that to secure the right of private property we must ignore the equality of right in the opportunities of life and labor. To say the one thing or the other is equally to deny the harmony of God's laws.
But, the private possession of land, subject to the payment to the community of the value of any special advantage thus given to the individual, satisfies both laws, securing to all equal participation in the bounty of the Creator and to each the full ownership of the prod- ucts of his labor.
Nor do we hesitate to say that this way of securing the equal right to the bounty of the Creator and the exclusive right to the products of labor is the way
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